Rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are expected to contribute to extreme weather like heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, excessively high and low temperatures, and severe storms. Wetlands are key ecosystems on which people and biodiversity depend heavily for availability of fresh water and for reducing impacts from extreme weather events.
Marshes and lakes, for example, store water after rainfall and release it in regular flows in dry periods. Rivers transport excess water away from areas, provide crucial fishery resources and help to keep floodplain farmland fertile by supplying nutrient-rich water and silt. Similarly, mangrove forests and coastal marshes protect coastlines from storms at sea. The loss of wetlands therefore doubles the impacts of climate change.
Wetlands International calls for:
international support and action to integrate wetland conservation and restoration in strategies to help people around the world to adapt to climate change.
Download: 'Sustaining and Restoring wetlands: an effective climate change response'
A brochure in which Wetlands International demonstrates in 4 regions (mountain wetlands, coasts, arid region) how wetland restoration and conservation can help adapt to climate change.
Wetland degradation amplifies the damage caused by extreme weather
Many regions have suffered from extreme weather events in recent years. Clear examples is the unique fact of two consecutive ‘type 5’ hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the long-lasting floods in northern India, both in 2007. In both cases, wetland loss worsened their effects. The coastal marshes of New Orleans were heavily degraded, and provided little protection from storms. And the high-altitude wetlands of the Himalayas have lost much of their ability to store water after heavy rainfall, because of erosion, siltation, overgrazing and mining. This has led to increased flood risks downstream.
Conservation and restoration of wetlands are effective climate adaptation strategies
Wetlands store huge quantities of fresh water
Wetlands like marshes, peatlands and lakes store around 30% of the world’s fresh water. Because they release stored fresh water gradually, these wetlands can mitigate the impact of extreme weather, reducing the risk of floodings. Also, if we lose the world’s marshes and peatlands, less fresh water will be stored and be available for people to drink or irrigate crops, especially in periods of droughts.
The ability of many wetlands to store and release water is threatened. Worrying examples are the paramos – the water towers of the Andes – and the high mountain wetlands of the Himalayas, which affect billions of people living in downstream areas in for instance China and India. The melting of glaciers due to climate change is making the situation even worse. Wetlands International has therefore supported the protection and restoration of the paramos in the Andes, and we are directly involved in partnership projects in the Himalayas. In addition we are restoring peatlands on the Tibetan plateau and improving water management in wetlands on the Indian subcontinent.
Wetlands reduce the impact of storms
Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests, coral reefs and coastal floodplains reduce the impact of storms and can help people adapt to sea-level rise. Mangroves can reduce the impacts of waves, as was seen when the Asian tsunami of 2004 struck: areas behind intact mangrove forests or coral reefs were less affected than coastal areas without these natural physical buffers.
However, many tropical regions, including Central America and South-East Asia, are rapidly losing their coastal wetlands. They are directly affected by the development of coastal shrimp farms, deforestation, pollution, dynamite fishing, and the blocking of freshwater inflows by roads and dikes and other structures such as landfills.
Watch our short film 'Mangrove forests for coastal restoration' to see how intact coastal wetlands make coastal areas more resilient against storms and floods.
Impacts in developing countries
Poor people in particular are very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, as they often depend directly on the foods, fibre and clean drinking water that natural and healthy wetland ecosystems supply. They also rely on the protection that such ecosystems provide against floods and droughts, and against the many diseases that are linked to wetland pollution.
In dryland regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, less rainfall and longer droughts are predicted, which will only increase the already-huge importance of the Sahelian wetlands in ensuring the survival of hundreds of millions of people and their livestock. Losing wetlands will thus first affect the environmental security of the poor. Improving wetland management is therefore crucial to ensuring that people can adapt to climate change, and is especially vital for the poor in developing countries.